if the hat says I don't care
by Katylin Lou
Summary: There is something wrong with her. But she cannot find out what her problem seems to be- except that the Weasly twins hate her and Snape loves her. Oh, and that most of the Slytherin don't seem to dislike her either. pls review!
1. Chapter 1

When I settled down at my chair, next to Ginny's I could only think one thought. Who was I, to claim to be important enough to be sorted by the hat? Who was I to step out there, taking the time of that stunningly accurate hat, powerful and magically influenced by Dumbledore himself? I had surely heard of all those things, that Dumbledore would make a speech and that the Sorting Hat would give us the name of the house we would be in from that very day on.

It would soon be found out, that I was a Muggle-born and horribly displaced, led here by mistake. I had no magical powers. Maybe I was a Muggle... Yes, I had heard enough to know everything about myself, about myself being either Mudblood or - even worse: just a Muggle. I had read enough to know, that I would never want to be in Slytherin, but did I know in which house I wanted to be? I flinched as my name fell; I stood up and put the Sorting Hat on my head. An awkward silence welcomed me. "Shit", I thought slowly. I was really not magical at all. How embarrassing. Suddenly an odd voice spoke to me. "I don't know. I am going to say your name out loud, then you can decide" I winced at the thought of all the people looking at me, how all the people from the houses I would not chose would soon loath me. I did not want to be stabbed by looks every day! In my panic I let a little scream out "No!" The hat instantly told me to shut up. "Can't… can't you just say Gryffindor?" I asked hesitantly and the same moment I thought it the hat spoke the word. Relieved I took him off and strode to the Gryffindor table.

Nobody seemed to have noticed the weird thing that had been going on while the hat was on my head. I didn't bother telling anybody, whom should I tell anyway, Ginny was the only person I trusted at the moment and she was too busy hugging her brother, overjoyed to be in the same house like every other family member of the Wesley's. I cursed myself for having the name Zolas which had forced me to be the last one called out.

"Did the hat say Slytherin first?" somebody behind me asked. I shook my head. "No. Why?" It was an older boy, year 2 or 3 I guessed. He shrugged "Just because you shrieked no while wearing it..." He did not seem to be insulting me and yet I felt as if I had to defend myself.

"Mind your own business" I hissed at him. His kind voice was not so kind anymore when he answered me. "George. Actually I just wanted to make you feel welcome here but you seem to be too ignorant to worship our friendliness" I did not reply. Why on earth couldn't I answer him? He went away without waiting for me to apologise or talk again. My appetite was gone now. I just stared at the food, wondering what the next day was going to bring me. I had never been popular but I had also never had enemies. I disliked the red-haired boy who had disturbed and confused me that bad.


	2. Chapter 2

The first Potions lesson was coming closer and closer and I could not deny being afraid. Neville, an older boy had told me stories about the teacher, which made me shiver. I hated teachers who had fun yelling at pupils and enjoyed being feared. The red-haired boy, George kept ignoring me and I did not try to talk to him again.

When I went down to Potions he ran after me, holding me back on my shoulder. "Wait!" he yelled. Surprised I looked at him. "I am Fred" George said, releasing my shoulder abruptly which made me stumble a few steps back. Irritated I looked at him. "Do you think you are funny?" I asked, slightly annoyed. His grin got even bigger and he nodded. "Yes but that's not the point right now" He seemed friendly and in a good mood so I decided to smile back. "You seem to be okay. I don't know why George dislikes you that much", he said, more to himself than to me. I waited for him to continue speaking. "I am his twin brother" he added then. "As I know that this is going to be your last lesson I want you to know that we don't hate you" He was laughing now, maybe because I looked at him as if he were a ghost. "The Professor is that bad?" I asked shyly and he repeated "Your last lesson. He is worse" I shook my head in despair. "Can't you give me a tip to survive him?" Now he was roaring with laughter. "Yes", he managed to say before being caught by another laughing fit. "Don't be late!" I checked my watch and my eyes widened in shock. I was supposed to be in potions _now_! Actually I was already a few minutes late! Fred looked at my reaction and when he saw my shock he was close to get another laughing fit. "Never ever believe one of us" he said chuckling. "Got you on the first day, huh? Snape is going to eat you alive!" I opened my mouth, wanted to say something but I just had to close it again. I was simply overstrained by the amount of evilness that had made me miss the first five minutes of Potions.

I just turned around and ran, as fast as I could, down to my classroom. I knocked hesitantly, considering if it weren't more intelligent to fake a disease to skip this lesson. "Come in", Snape's cold voice told me and I went into his classroom. I noticed a few people looking at me with a grin, probably hoping for Snape to explode. He did not do anything. "Sit down", he ordered and I obeyed immediately, happy to be able to do something.

The whole lesson went much too good for me to be real, I had messed up my potion and yet Snape did not yell at me. He simply pointed his wand at it and vanished it before anyone could see _how_ bad it was. "Next time it'll be better", he told me in his usual cold tone and continued to check the potions. The next one was Ginny's; she had obviously forgotten one ingredient. I had already been thinking about the "dangerous Potion teacher" as a myth when he started his tirade. How stupid one girl could be, he continued to shout at her and I could see how she felt worse and worse every second.


	3. Chapter 3

Please review

My simple guess, that the next lesson would become different was wrong. I made sure to be in time the next lesson – as I had seen neither George nor Fred after the incident I had nothing what would distract me – and came even early. I messed up again, I could not help being horrible; I mean I really tried very hard but obviously did the same mistake Ginny had done the last time: I overlooked one ingredient. When Snape passed my table he pointed his wand at the garlic, which was the thing I had forgotten. My face turned red and I started apologizing weakly. "Thank goodness you found Potions important enough to appear in time today Miss Zolas. If you hadn't you would have never had the time to mess up that bad" he told me. Some Slytherin boys chuckled. I had to force myself not to join them laughing. Snape did not seem to bother anymore and he moved onwards to Ginny's table. I could see that her hands were already shaking and again he found something wrong done. I could see the tears she was choking back and felt the sudden urge to help her, to defend her. "Professor" I said in an unmistakable clear voice. "Ginny has not done anything wrong except – I have to admit, once again – forgetting one ingredient. It could be a lot worse, Professor!" I wanted to continue, tell that my Potion was much worse than hers anyway, that after adding the garlic it went red instead of violet and that he was to strict with her but – maybe it was good for me – he interrupted me by shouting at Ginny. How she dared to forget that ingredient. He turned to me for only the blink of an eye, hissing that I should definitely keep out of his way and that he could do whatever he wanted to. HE was the Professor. I really kept out of his business for the whole next week. Yet I couldn't help noticing, that he was never yelling at me, that he was always giving me some advantage. On Saturday we had a free day and I was sitting in the common room, doing Snape's homework. Concerning this the students had been right. Snape's homework was too much. Ron and Harry came to sit next to me, soon followed by Fred and George. I was trying not to look at them, not to show them how much I had been thinking about them.

"Did Snape rip you in pieces?" one of them asked casually. "Detention's for sure, eh?" the other one added. I shook my head. "Do you think it's possible that he likes me?" I asked, not addressing to someone in special but talking to everyone in the room. "Not if you are no Slytherin" Harry answered smiling. Hermione had stepped towards us and sat next to me. "He has not yet been mad at me" I stuttered, trying to find out if this was normal. "You ARE a Slytherin then", Ron exclaimed, backing away from me. He and Harry laughed at my shocked expression. "No, if you are really good at Potions it's possible" Hermione calmed me down. I faked understanding and mumbled something like "yes that's likely… I am good at Potions" I could see her nodding and Harry nudged Ron "Finally you got someone to give you help!" He turned to me "Nobody is good in Potions…" Even Hermione agreed to that. Meeting their gazes of astonishment and respect I noted in my head that I had to learn Potions. I could not continue to fail that bad if Snape was really giving me advantage… But why the hell was he giving me advantage? If I were at least gifted in Potions!

I could only wonder about this for now, I did not know anything that would explain his behaviour. Fred did not seem pleased to hear that I was coming along so well with Snape. "So he did not kill you when you were late?" he asked. Harry stared at me. "You were late!" he gasped horrified. "And you are alive?" Ron chuckled. I smiled wryly. "Well it was my first day, wasn't it? Maybe he didn't want to scare me off?" They exchanged looks of surprise and then shrugged. I could see disbelief on their faces, disbelief and doubt. I hated being dishonest but I simply could not tell them the truth. "I was just kidding… Of course he was angry" I quickly told them.

They joined in my faked laughter and Ron patted me on the shoulder. "But if you are really good in Potions you will have to help me one time" He stood up and left the room – I was glad not having to answer on that. I started to detest Snape. Maybe this was his way to be a monster to me. He made me study for Potions harder than for any other subject. Because by giving me advantage he forced me to be good.


	4. Chapter 4

The third lesson really was a little bit better for me; I had studied pretty hard and therefore now managed to get a proper Potion. When Snape walked towards my table I smiled confidently.

"Acceptable" he stated and checked Ginny's.

"Acceptable?" I wondered inaudibly. He had told me this the last time -and the last time my Potion had had an utterly wrong colour! If this was not better than the last time it was awful! I felt anger pulsating in my veins.

Ginny was meanwhile crying; he had dared to give her detention. I was thinking very hard now; I needed to get in detention as well to be on her side. My thoughts were interrupted by an urgent knock on the door. Lavender busted into the room, holding a piece of paper in her hands.

"As I am the leader of the school newspaper "Once weekly" I would like you to sign here if you want to be a part of the writer's community" she told us.

Obviously she was not afraid of disturbing the lesson. I signed before she had even finished speaking.

After she left Snape did a second check on every Potion.

"Really you seem to get better" he told me smoothly. A Slytherin boy – I could not remember whether it was it the same one who had been laughing about me the other day – sneezed and managed to hide the word "know-it-all" in his sneeze.

I couldn't help grinning and a sudden idea overcame me. "Jealous?" I wrote on a piece of paper and hold it up so he could read it. I wanted to turn around to see his reaction but the letters were changing and formed now the word "Extremely"

I now turned around and saw him hiding his wand. He smirked at me and touched his wand shortly. A little heart appeared on the piece of paper. I could not help being impressed by his talent. Impressed and well… confused? Irritated?

He smirked at me and winked. Who the hell was being treated well by Slytherin guys? Obviously it was me again. "Shit" I simply thought. I hated to stand out in the crowd. No need for anyone to hear about that incident…

The first meeting with Lavender took place in the Gryffindor common room.

It happened that only Gryffindor's were in her team. I considered asking her if this was on purpose and if the readers who bought the paper regularly knew that other students had no chance to be in the 'neutral' writing team but I did not want to be kicked out of the team. So I remained silent and listened to her. We split the work into pieces and I became the "Star" part.

Our names would not be said; everybody we interviewed had to swear not to tell anybody, who did the interview. Also they were told that somebody else would be writing it – based on the interviewer's information. A lie, but a successful one. This made sure that we could not get problems for the things we would be writing. Obviously this also ensured that nobody realised that only Gryffindor's worked for the newspapers. Yes, Lavender was smart.

Writing for the "Once Weekly" was better then I had expected. As I was trusted with the "Stars-part" I could easily meet new people, talk to a lot of famous Quidditch players and make a lot of new friends.

Until. Until the day Lavender decided to change the part.

The interviews were getting boring; I had to sneak up to people, to get undercover stuff.

I agreed, hoping that this would get some Action in my rather dull life.

Not, that I disliked it in Hogwarts, no, but the subjects were easy, I felt a bit under-estimated in every lesson and we didn't have much to do.

My friends seemed already overstrained with the easiest parts of our homework and had recently stopped copying from me because they finally noticed that they needed to know the things somewhen.

My first few undercover actions went without any problems, I literally fell over the weirdest things, got directly involved into big fights and love problems. People got more and more curious about our newspaper.

When Lavender told me, that our newest desire were the Weasley twins I hesitated but agreed. It meant another challenge for me. Fred and George acted always secretly, always checking twice if there was somebody watching the.

It didn't seem right to gather information about somebody I knew personally. But, as I told myself, I would only pass information for fans, nothing, that would cause them problems.


End file.
